With a little help from my friends . . . .

Took a break from posting much of anything for most of yesterday because (pretty much the only important thing) we discovered that my twins' favorite uncle had to be rushed to the hospital when he collapsed, and was diagnosed with Stage 4 abdominal cancer.

Puts things in more perspective for you.

But Dana Garrett makes me smile by sending me the link to this cartoon about the varieties of Libertarians.

John Young pointed out to me that CSD school board candidate Shirley Saffer has in fact denounced the anti-Val Harris hate site.

Mrs. Saffer's statement is here; the only truly odd thing about it is Mrs. Saffer's apparent penchant for writing in the third person, but--hey--we all have our quirks, and given that Mrs. Saffer has done the right thing, who am I to throw participles? Perhaps Ms. Harris will get the idea.

Thanks also to John for a really nice shout-out on Transparent Christina.

Kilroy and I are going through a really rocky time in our relationship, having ended up on different sides in the Red Clay election. I should point out two things: (1) I have never offered him a cup of coffee after the election; I don't drink the stuf, so that's not me; and (2) he did Charter School of Wilmington a great service by prompting the board to update its minutes' page in the interest of transparency. And today he has the best assessment of the Pencader tragedy that I've read anywhere.

Blogging and elections, unfortunately, create gigantic but hopefully temporary chasms between passionate people, but I'm still not drinkin' coffee.

My friends at Kids Prefer Cheese capture the essence of why higher education costs are skyrocketing, a lesson that both UD and DSU could stand to examine.

And while we are in constant angst over little things like the future of public education, Hube reminds us that there are truly important issues out there to be considered, like why the last Star Trek TV show (Enterprise) bombed, and why that means we'll probably never see the original Trek universe on TV or in the movies again.

Which is as good an awkward segue as I can imagine for saying that my own little fan production, Star Trek: Discovery--the Voyages of the Marie Curie, will be presenting its second installment (chapters 1 and 2 of episode 1) later this evening--for the four or five people in the country who might actually care.

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

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