The Overhanging Sky

If it Quacks Like a Duck
The Phil Robertson controversy follows a similar pattern, indeed it is engraved in the playbook of the Gay Thought Police (GTP). Find a Christian target. It could be a politician, a celebrity, a businessman, an athlete or some other public figure. Ask them what they think about homosexuality. Then express outrage when they give you an honest answer. It has happened so many times that it is predictably boring. The difference this time is that the non-gay public, and frankly some thoughtful gay people as well, have had enough. 

We again implore everyone to adopt the RedStateVT philosophy which goes like this: 

Everyone is entitled to love who they love.
Everyone should stop talking about their sexuality. 


Conspicuous
After the Newtown killings a year ago, state legislatures across the country debated measures that would have more strictly limited the gun rights of those with mental illness. But most of the bills failed amid resistance from both the gun lobby and mental health advocates concerned about unfairly stigmatizing people. In Washington, discussion of new mental health restrictions was conspicuously absent from the federal gun control debate. (New York Times, 12/22/2013)

Because, God forbid, we do not want to stigmatize mentally ill people who may become violent.

And if the gun lobby truly did resist efforts at restricting access to gun by the mentally ill then shame on them. 


The Democrat Philosophy
Democrats Work to Raise Number of Female Governors (New York Times headline, 12/22/2013)

Here it is in eight words. 

Not let's find competent governors. Not let's find qualified governors. Not let's find experienced governors. 

No, let's find women governors. Because it is all about identity politics with Democrats. Hence, Hillary Clinton is already a front-runner. Another box to be checked. 


Repetition
Union cash helps elect politicians who then reward the unions with higher pay and benefits. The cycle repeats until taxes become destructive and spending is unaffordable. Exhibit A is Detroit. But some 38 local governments have filed for bankruptcy since 2010, "largely because of out-of-control pension costs," Mr. Bloomberg said. (Wall Street Journal, 12/20/2013)

Well stated.


Slammin' It!
MSNBC hosts David Gregory and Chris Matthews slammed the nomination of Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) to Ambassador to China Friday afternoon.

Meet the Press host David Gregory characterized the choice as “curious” considering Baucus’s lack of foreign policy experience and the immense security challenges the United States faces with China. (Freebeacon.com, 12/20/2013)

And we know that Gregory and Matthews are sincere because they similarly criticized the choice of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. Clinton who - like Baucus - had no foreign policy experience. 

Or are we remembering that wrong?


Significance
Suzy K. Johnson, who is president of Employee Benefit Advisors, an insurance brokerage firm in North Carolina, said HealthCare.gov had been working smoothly for her clients. “The website is working, and many are getting significant subsidies,” she said. By midday, she said, her office had helped six people sign up for coverage. (New York Times, 12/24/2013)

How exciting! Many are getting "significant subsidies." 

Question: Where do these subsidies come from?
Is it from a) The Magic Government Money Machine, or b) Money collected from taxpayers?


Lesser
The president opted for a bronze plan, one of the less expensive options on the HealthCare.gov site. (New York Times, 12/24/2013)

Curious that Obama shopped price. Which frankly is what most people will be forced to do given the sky high premiums. Most people that are not having their health insurance paid for through subsidies, i.e. from taxpayers. 


Snow Job
During more than 14 hours of interviews in Russia, the former NSA contractor reflected on the roots and repercussions of his decision to go public with caches of top secret documents. By his own terms, Snowden succeeded beyond plausible ambition. The NSA now faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever.

“For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” Snowden told The Post’s Barton Gellman. “I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself. (Washington Post, 12/23/2013)

Hey, Snowden. You know what isn't finished? Your life sentence once you step back on American soil!

Torn Apart and Rent

Dopes
A new federal report shows that the percentage of American high school students who smoke marijuana is slowly rising, while the use of alcohol and almost every other drug is falling.

The report raises concerns that the relaxation of restrictions on marijuana, which can now be sold legally in 20 states and the District of Columbia, has been influencing use of the drug among teenagers. Health officials are concerned by the steady increase and point to what they say is a growing body of evidence that adolescent brains, which are still developing, are susceptible to subtle changes caused by marijuana. (New York Times, 12/18/2013)

And in the news today, Brattleboro becomes the fourth Vermont city to have a "medical" marijuana store. Governor Peter Shumlin must be so proud! Did he attend the opening? Was there a ribbon-cutting ceremony?


Cold
After being introduced, the president just about bounced onto the stage. A few days earlier I had heard a commentator say he seemed in the dumps these days. That afternoon he was fresh, unruffled — in other words, cool. (Maybe it was because our state’s health-insurance exchange, Covered California, demonstrates how well the Affordable Care Act works when implemented correctly: My youngest daughter got a silver plan that drastically reduces her monthly premiums within an hour of applying.) (Ishmael Reed, New York Times, 12/19/2013)

This is the kind of utter nonsense that the New York Times sees fit to print. An entire puff piece on how President Obama is President Cool. Yes, not only Cool, he is Be Bop Jazz Cool! 

And Reed is just thrilled that his daughter got a cheap new health plan. Why we wonder would a young person opt for a silver plan when cheaper options are available? Oh, that's right. You have to choose a silver plan in order to get federal subsidies. So President Cool did the Reed family a solid by giving them some freebies...courtesy of taxpayers. Got it. 


Roughly
Americans who lack medical coverage disapprove of President Obama’s health care law at roughly the same rate as the insured, even though most say they struggle to pay for basic care, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Fifty-three percent of the uninsured disapprove of the law, the poll found, compared with 51 percent of those who have health coverage. (New York Times, 12/19/2013)

Actually, the uninsured disapprove of Obamacare by a greater percentage than the insured. But that is something that the New York Times cannot bring itself to write.


Conflict Avoidance
Senator Max Baucus of Montana, soon to be nominated as President Obama’s next ambassador to China, is the powerful — and, to many fellow Democrats, infuriating — chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He is also the conflicted architect of Mr. Obama’s health care law.

Now, if he is confirmed, Mr. Baucus, who had already announced that he would not run for re-election in 2014, will join the administration whose bureaucratic ineptitude he foresaw in April when he warned of a “huge train wreck” if officials did not do a better job explaining the Affordable Care Act. (New York Times, 12/19/2013)

Obama's objective? To get Baucus out of town. As far away as possible. It's China only because the position of Ambassador to the Moon has already been filled.

Least Among You

As If
After the Russian warning, Mr. Obama said: “It’s not as if the F.B.I. did nothing. They not only investigated the older brother; they interviewed the older brother. They concluded that there were no signs that he was engaging in extremist activity.” (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Apparently posting jihadist videos on your Facebook page does NOT qualify as "extremist activity."


Bite of the Apple
About two-thirds of Apple’s cash — about $102 billion — sits overseas in lower-tax jurisdictions. If it returned some of that cash to the United States to reward its investors, it could have significant tax consequences for the company. (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Liberals would argue either that Apple should return their cash hoard to the U.S. and pay higher taxes in order to be patriotic or that Apple should be taxed more heavily because they evade U.S. taxes by moving their money offshore. Conservatives would argue that the U.S. should lower taxes so that Apple would keep money in this country. Which makes more sense to you?


Notional
“It’s not sustainable,” Mr. Obama said at a White House news conference. “The notion that we’re going to keep 100 individuals in no man’s land in perpetuity,” he added, makes no sense. “All of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this? Why are we doing this?” (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Well boss, you da president.

As the article also points out, Obama could order a case-by-case review of the gentle souls in Gitmo and seek individual releases. He has not done so.

Also, when he does not get his way on other issues, Obama resorts to Executive Order. Apparently it is easier for him to simply demagogue.


Train Kept a Rollin'
President Obama said Tuesday that his health care law was “working fine,” and he played down concerns that the law could disrupt coverage or lead to higher premiums for people who already had health insurance.
...
At a hearing two weeks ago, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that many of his constituents were confused about the new law, and that “education and outreach” efforts by the administration were inadequate. “I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Mr. Baucus said. (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Who should we believe, the Democrat President or the Democrat Senator? 

(And what do we read into the fact that Baucus is not running for re-election?)


If Ever
One hundred days into his second term, Obama has already lost control of the agenda, if he ever had control in the first place. He ricocheted through his news conference, as he has through his presidency recently, between issues and crises not of his choice. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 4/30/2013)

Coulter is too hard on the president. Oh, it's Liberal Milbank?


Controlling
Today Vermonters are not celebrating the 6 percent rise in the gas tax. Governor Shumlin and his Democrat controlled legislature have increased a tax on those least able to afford higher taxes, the low income hard working families of Vermont. (VTGOP, 5/1/2013)

The VTGOP gets on board with RedStateVT in condemning the Shumlin tax hike on working families in Vermont.