■ Proverbs
17:4 appears to be Blaming the Victim:
4 A wicked person listens to deceitful lips;
a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.
Hey, Proverbialist, it's not my fault that I believed all that stuff
I heard from …
Well, you can finish that sentence yourself. In so many ways.
■ The Skeptical Libertarian, Daniel Bier, asks and answers: Is
Climate Change Killing Coffee? Not So Far. It's a short review
of actual data (with graphs!), in response to Yet Another Article predicting
Imminent Caffeine Armageddon. Bottom line:
I’m not playing Pollyanna to Cassandra here. I’m not saying climate
change is a good thing. I’m not even saying that climate change
won’t present challenges for coffee farmers in the future — as long
as global and regional climates are changing, of course industries
will have to adapt.
But it’s ridiculous to go around prophesying the imminent doom of an
industry (based on papers written by non-economists and
non-specialists) without even attempting to square that
prediction with the observable reality of that sector.
And the reality is this: the coffee industry (as shown by prices, production, and yield rates) is quite healthy. If you think it’s actually on its deathbed, you have to explain why that data doesn’t matter and what everyone with a financial stake in it is missing. It’s bad journalism to report on the demise of coffee without even mentioning that production and yields are at all time highs — and coffee futures prices aren’t.
If you think Bier is wrong, he offers to bet.
■ Big trouble over in Hooksett, as reported in the Daily
Signal: College
Republicans Say Conservative Speaker Was Treated ‘Unfairly’ at
Southern New Hampshire University.
Conservative activist Matt Walsh came to Southern New Hampshire University at the request of the SNHU College Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation, but Walsh and College Republicans believe his speech was not treated fairly.
It's a script we've seen elsewhere: advertising posters torn down,
people reserving "tickets" for an event they had no intention of
attending, interested students not allowed access because they
couldn't get tickets.
■ At AEI, Michael R. Strain writes a manifesto for
A
Limited, Energetic Government. He bills it as "an alternative to
both Trump and Sanders." Sounds good! And his vision seems solid:
It’s a society in which free markets reward individual initiative,
public policy advances opportunity and empowers people to earn their
own success, and dynamism and energy characterize our economic
lives. It’s a society that demands personal responsibility,
self-reliance, and self-discipline, but also recognizes human
imperfection and uncertainty and therefore allows no one to fall too
far. And it’s a society in which the “mediating institutions”
between citizen and government, most especially the family, are
strong and vibrant, and in which social trust is high and bonds of
solidarity are strong.
Only problem: solid opposition from Democrats, and unprincipled spinelessness
from Republicans.
Well, I guess that's two problems. But you know what I mean.
■ What would happen if you put an AI to work writing a novel based
on a corpus of famous best-sellers? Fortunately, that burning
question has now been
answered;
you would get Chapter 13 of Harry Potter and
the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash.
■ Mental Floss will tell you The
Most (and Least) Expensive States for Staying Warm This Winter.
(It's based on a Wallet Hub
article
from July.)
Michigan, which ranks 33rd overall, outdoes every other state in the
natural gas department with an average bill of $60 a month. Alaska
is close behind with $59, followed by Rhode Island With $58.
People living in Maine prefer oil to heat their homes, spending $84 a month on the fuel source. All six New England states—Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts—occupy the top six spots in this category.
New Hampshire is #9 in overall energy cost, #5 on monthly home
heating-oil cost.
2018-05-22 UPDATE: A gentleman wrote in from a company called "Choose
Energy", its mission to "change energy consumers' lives for the better
by providing education and tools, empowering people to take control
of their choices in a confounding multibillion-dollar industry." He
notes the Wallet Hub data is old, and
recommends you go to
this
frequently-updated page for comparing state average electric
rates.
As I type: among the 50 states, New Hampshire is #6 for high residential electric rates, a
dizzying 19.84 cents/kWh. New England dominates the top 10 for
electricity expense: MA is #2, RI #3, CT #4, VT #9, and ME #10.
Thanks to "James G" at Choose Energy for the pointer.
■ NHPR notes that the ACLU has pointed out something that we
shouldn't need the ACLU to point out: Border Patrol Checkpoints On I-93 Violated N.H. Constitution
Gilles Bissonnette, legal director for the ACLU-NH, says those
stops, and the use of drug-sniffing dogs, violated the New Hampshire
Constitution because there was no warrant or reasonable
suspicion.
“Border Patrol simply used these dog sniff searches on everyone that
went through the checkpoint, and that’s violative of New Hampshire
constitution, which is more protective of privacy than even the Fourth
Amendment to the Federal Constitution,” he said.
During the multi-day checkpoints, Bissonette believes that hundreds and
possibly thousands of individuals were subjected to illegal searches by
the dogs.
“So we just think this is incredibly problematic, and hardly consistent
with New Hampshire’s ‘Live Free or Die’ approach to these issues.”
This story brought to you by my Google News Alert for LFOD invocations.
■ Also triggering the LFOD alarm bell comes all the way from
Colorado, in a publication called the Mountain-Ear Newspaper.
(Mounain-Ear. Get it?)
Stage Stop fair welcomes locals
Derik Stevens, of Ward, brought in his hand made fur hats, saying
this was his first time at the Fair. Derik was featured on the
National Geographic series, “Live Free or Die,” representing the Mountain Man.
Derik's unusual name allows us further Google research, and brings
up
this story from
2007:
Ward's self-proclaimed "Giant Killer Blacksmith" — and "undefeated
champion" of the mountain town's daylong slugfest, "Hammertime" —
has been ordered by a Boulder judge to give up his weapons.
Derik Leif Stevens, 36, who makes battle axes and spears for a living, is slated to begin serving a Boulder County Jail weekend work-crew sentence today after pleading guilty last week to felony menacing. Stevens also was sentenced to four years of probation by Boulder County District Judge D.D. Mallard and cannot posses any weapons during that time.
The LFOD spirit is strong with Derik, and if that involves having a certain
number of felony menacing convictions on your rap sheet, so be it.