Yet another Laptop Drive update.

It’s actually almost over, thanks to the generosity of several individuals. Good thing that I got that button working, huh?

Speaking of which:

As noted before, the sooner this is over the sooner I can go back to writing zombie haiku:

Grey cherry blossoms
Exploding in the spring air –
Head shots are messy.

Which may or may not appeal, of course.

Woonsocket Tea Party group stops supplemental tax increase.

It was originally expected to pass, no problem. But then a bunch of people showed up and… well. 6-1 for became 4-3 against.

WOONSOCKET — Faced with a heavy outpouring of opposition from property owners, the City Council last night narrowly defeated a supplemental tax bill to wipe out a School Department deficit of $3.7 million.

[snip]

The measure would have given the city authority to hike all classes of taxes — residential, business and business equipment — about 10 percent. The average homeowner would have paid roughly an extra $231 this fiscal year.

Though the hike would have been about the same on small businesses percentage-wise, they would have paid significantly more since they are already taxed at a higher rate.

(H/T: Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, and check out this Jim Geraghty piece). Continue reading Woonsocket Tea Party group stops supplemental tax increase.

Right.org is having a $27,599 video contest.

Details here, and the main site is here. There’s still a month to go for the contest (deadline is May 25, 2009), so get your video editing juices flowing and get your own, personal bailout.

Moe Lane

PS: They do want to hear from Democrats tired of the bailouts too, by the way. This doesn’t have to be a partisan political issue.

Crossposted to RedState.

A welcome but unnecessary defense of West Point.

Why I love America, Reason #4654908:

In Defense of West Point: A Cadet Responds to Thomas Ricks

My fellow cadets at West Point, in moments of overwhelming stress and cynicism, often compare our “rockbound highland home” to prison. Like inmates, cadets are regularly deprived of a wide range of social freedoms that “normal college students” would see as constitutional rights—we are told when, what, and where to sleep, eat, and wear. Our campus is secured on all perimeters by gates and security guards and entry into and out of West Point is tightly regulated. Most of the time, West Point feels more like the Panopticon than it does Harvard Yard. Thomas E. Ricks of the Washington Post voiced the sentiments of many of my classmates (myself included) during periods of utter exhaustion and pessimism when he declared this weekend that “we should get rid of West Point.”

So why do my classmates and I still stand proudly in the Long Gray Line? Because we think it’s worth it.

…it produces military personnel who can clearly, effectively, and courteously rebut an ‘argument’ that was (to paraphrase a colleague) extended more for notoriety’s sake than out of any real conviction. The last is probably the most important point, really: Rick’s condescending, parochial dismissal of a military tradition stretching back more than two hundred years is everything that we’ve come to expect from CNAS-style liberals. Particularly one who has graduated from Yale, a school that bans ROTC.

Personally, I’m growing tired of having to take seriously the narrow-mindedness of the Political Class.

Moe Lane

Continue reading A welcome but unnecessary defense of West Point.

And to think they considered RFK Jr. for EPA head.

That would have been one fascinating Cabinet meeting. Up to the point where RFK Jr screamed ‘TRAITOR!’ and tried to murder the President.

That wasn’t a joke.

So let’s start off by reviewing the basic statement:

“Clean coal is a dirty lie,” says environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who calls President Barack Obama and other politicians who commit taxpayer money to develop it “indentured servants” of the coal industry.

Let us stop here, for a moment. This isn’t about clean coal, per se. That debate is actually irrelevant to this post. Also irrelevant – for this post – is whether Kennedy meant anything racial by use of the term ‘indentured servant.’ You can decide for yourself whether that was a code phrase for ‘slave.’  But what we have to establish here is that Robert F Kennedy referred to the President of the United States as an indentured servant to the coal industry.  So conceded that it happened?

Good.  Let us move, as they say, on. Continue reading And to think they considered RFK Jr. for EPA head.