February 11 Link Log

Belatedly...I've been snowed in as only residents of the Southern States can be snowed in. There was no snow on any actual roads near me on Tuesday or Wednesday, but there were rumors of ice, and there were traces of snow on rooftops, producing a snow panic and causing public buildings to shut down. (That happened today too, but as there were no visible signs of snow I came into town and, finding the computer center shut down, caught someone at home and more or less commandeered her dining room. I can't do this on every snow day.) Categories: Obligatory Fundraising Link, Business, Flint, Food (Yum), Politics, Virginia Legislature.

Obligatory Fundraising Link 

Fund it and it will go away...or rather, I'll stop nagging you to fund it and start actually doing it.

http://igg.me/at/frugalgraciouslivingchallenge/x

Business 

Today's Blogjob post was provoked by a business that put a store employee on hold...

http://nowiknow.com/the-history-of-being-on-hold/

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2016/02/11/businesses-one-price-for-all-is-the-only-way-to-go/

Flint 

Why ninety-five thousand people who were paying for drinkable water, and received polluted water, may not be eligible to collect damages...makes a compelling case for privatizing water treatment facilities. Probably 999 out of every thousand cases where public water supplies were contaminated represents a good-faith error, and this may yet be one of them--the fact that people pay for bottled water doesn't always mean that they believe tap water contains anything worse than the standard trace of chlorine--but the mere possibility that a government employee could conceivably get away with deliberately poisoning people means that water treatment may be a job government shouldn't be allowed to handle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/flint-water-crisis-victims-increasingly-turn-to-courts-but-face-big-obstacles/2016/02/10/92abc9a2-cf67-11e5-abc9-ea152f0b9561_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Earlier this week, we saw that (some) Republicans were trying to blame big government for the mess. Here we see that (some) Democrats...aaauuuggghhh. And Shikha Dalmia's libertarian viewpoint sounds high-handed too...if the suggestion of evacuating a whole town doesn't come from the townsfolk themselves, and isn't 99% unanimous with them, it's probably better left unmentioned.

http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/11/what-to-do-about-flint-evacuate-the-resi

Food (Yum)

Are you cooking beans during this cold snap, Gentle Readers?

http://blogjob.com/gettingoffthegrid/2016/02/10/learning-getting-off-the-grid-food-storage/

Here's a timely cake decorating idea:

http://blogjob.com/foodwithaplan/archives/343

Dr. McDougall is still debating Dr. Atkins. Note how much better preserved the vegan doctor looks. Between a "low-carb" carnivorous diet or a "high-carb" mostly-vegan diet, where both diets work by requiring people to cut back on junkfood and eat more vegetables, this web site can only recommend that people choose the one that works for them. For many people, that's McDougall. This web site is not going to post any links to any "diet success stories" that show the obese "before" picture in a teeny-weeny bikini; images of obese bodies in bikinis don't inspire me to read on and I'm not going to steer youall to look at any more of them. You can, however, find one at the McDougall site, if you really look for it. The site is "rewarding" an extrovert dieter who lost sixty ugly pounds by going vegan in 2015. This link, however, will open a more inspiring image of a healthy elderly vegan, clothed, inviting you to participate in a weekend "webinar" of advanced vegan studies with other vegan health care professionals.

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5e58f59d97611f910916b6276&id=ebd26a3ecd&e=4d57a9fdfb

Politics 

Fine points of the law from Publius Huldah:

https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2016/02/11/natural-born-citizen-and-naturalized-citizen-explained/

Since Robert Hurt has announced plans to retire, five other candidates have declared their willingness to represent Virginia's fifth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. The one of them who has name recognition at this web site is State Senator Tom Garrett. However, correspondent Patricia Evans has sent us campaign material from candidate Michael Del Rosso, from Lynchburg, also running as a Republican. (Of the other three, one is a Republican and two are Democrats.) This web site has no business endorsing candidates for Lynchburg. Instead we'll share a few links for those who want to know more about Candidate Del Rosso. This one contains the press release that also came in the e-mail:

http://www.nbc29.com/story/30877865/michael-del-rosso-running-for-5th-district-seat

This one introduces a book Michael Del Rosso wrote, which can be downloaded from the site:

http://shariahthethreat.org/about-the-book/

Here's a recent piece he posted at thehill.com:

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/256000-underfunding-patriot-modernization-endangers-our-troops

Virginia Legislature 2016

Some of us wanted a constitutional convention to strengthen the constitutional protections of certain individual freedoms. I think the balance is swinging as we count the number of clueless people recruited by left-wing organizations and realize how easy a constitutional convention would make it for those who want to shred our Constitution. I actually think, if such a constitutional convention were enforced upon us, this bill might be useful. Better, we affirm the Constitution we've got and stick to it until the Loony Left wake up and realize which century we're in.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+ful+HB1328