Now That's An Ancestral Tree.

One of the first fruit trees planted in America is still alive and well at age 383.

Obama Voter Of The Week.

Dear Readers, I give you the hope and change of one Vivencia 
Bellegarde:

A Cadillac-driving OUI suspect — charged with running a Boston Globe delivery truck off Interstate 93 and onto the Leverett Connector — was carrying three EBT cards, mocked a cop “for paying for food when she gets it for free” and threatened to put a voodoo curse on him, according to a police report.

“I questioned her as to why she had other peoples (sic) EBT cards and she 
began screaming that I was a ‘dumb (expletive)’ for paying for food when she gets it for free,” trooper William Koko­cinski wrote of Vivencia 
Bellegarde, 25, of Everett, noting she had her own electronic benefits transfer card and also the cards of two other people.

“She repeatedly called me a racist and told me she was from Haiti and she was gonna ‘put voodoo on my white (expletive),’” Kokocinski wrote. “(She) told me to Google her name and find out who I was ‘(expletive) with’. She further explained that her name translated means ‘give life take life’ and she emphasized ‘TAKE LIFE’. She then shouted that she was ‘coming for all you white (expletives).’”

Justice for Trayvon. Yeah, that must be it.

If You Can't Make It...

...Fake it. It can get you to the top in all sorts of places. Like, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, apparently:

Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, who has overseen the 233-year-old Cambridge honorary society for the past 17 years, had been on paid leave from the academy for more than a month after the Globe reported that she falsely claimed a doctorate from New York University and misstated her work history in federal grant applications and other documents over the past decade.

And what does a little resume padding get you? Well, in the world of non-profits, it seems quite a tidy sum. And you don't have to worry about staff morale or customer relations to earn your keep:

Berlowitz also came under fire for regularly berating staffers, micromanaging the academy’s affairs, barring scholars from viewing the academy’s historic archives, and receiving an outsized pay package -- more than $598,000 in fiscal year 2012 alone for an organization with only a few dozen staffers, several times what her peers were paid.

Call Me Cynical...

...But I ain't buying it. 'Ging-Giss' John Kerry, our part-time Secretary of State, has taken some heat recently for focusing on his yachting skills while Egypt burns. Now, suddenly, this:

"Teresa Heinz Kerry, leading philanthropist and wife of US Secretary of State John F. Kerry, was at Massachusetts General Hospital tonight after being rushed this afternoon to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, where a hospital spokesman had said she was in critical but stable condition.

Heinz Kerry, 74, was stricken with an unspecified medical condition this afternoon and taken by ambulance to the local hospital, accompanied by her husband, according to Glen Johnson, spokesman for Kerry.

Noah Brown, public information officer for Nantucket Cottage Hospital, verified that Heinz Kerry arrived at the hospital this afternoon, but said he could not disclose the nature of her illness.

Sorry, Dear Readers, but my Massachusetts political cynicism is going off big-time. When we lived up there, every time Ted Kennedy got caught with his hand (or other body parts) in the cookie jar, Mother Rose would have some sort of medical issue and Ted would be seen wheeling her round in a staged photo-op. Distraction, accomplished. I think John's problems will vanish quickly from from the headlines now.

Massachusetts' RomneyCare Present Is Our ObamaCare Future.

And it doesn't look good.

And The Ones Who Couldn't Tell An Umbrella From An AK-47 Will Get, What? An Award?...

The Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts - a place I frequented often while living in the Tax State, was evacuated today because two - not one, but two - Massachusetts Morons couldn't tell the difference between an umbrella and a "short-barreled rifle".

The poor sod who was just trying to keep dry felt so bad he came forward to the police. Will the idiots who wasted everybody's time because they couldn't tell a Totes from a Tavor do the same? It's Massachusetts - don't hold your breath.

"The Consummate Management Consultant".

This is why I wouldn't vote of for Mitt Romney for dog catcher, much less President:

In his opinion, without the Massachusetts plan the federal individual mandate plan wouldn’t have garnered acceptance and gotten through. “It was huge,” Gruber says, to have the Massachusetts plan to point to. And without it, he thinks “it’s likely” ObamaCare wouldn’t have become law.

Having lived there, I can assure you the old axiom is true: A "Massachusetts conservative" is a liberal in the rest of the country.

Oh, Pha-lease.

This week's Baton Rouge Business Report just hit my desk, and the cover story is about EBR's $1.3 billion sewer improvements. Rolfe and the gang are calling it "The BIG Dig".

Really? Really?

I was working in downtown Boston in the late 80's - 90's when the real 'Big Dig' happened. My wife worked for one of the firms doing design work on the above ground infrastructure. $1.3 billion and digging down a few feet... there is no comparison.

Time To Eat The Crullers!

According to the Daily Report, Dunkin' Donuts is looking to expand into Baton Rouge. One of the things I still miss about Massachusetts - 17 years on - is Dunkin' Donuts. No, their coffee will never beat CDM, but there is nothing better than a warm cruller on a cold, wintery morning. And we seem to be having rather more of those cold, wintery mornings round here.

Down In Hyannis Port, A Major Offense.

Ted Kennedy's former office manager stole more than $75,000 from the government.

This is serious; he deserves jail time. It's not like somebody merely drowned in his car...

Twit For Tat.

John Kerry calls for Israel to give up the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. I think Israel should respond by calling for Kerry to give up his wife's (inherited) fortune and his $7 million sailboat first.

An Interesting Endorsement In MA-4.

According to a campaign email I got this morning, Senator John McCain has endorsed Sean Bielat, Barney Frank's challenger in Massachusetts' 4th District:

On this Election Day voters in Massachusetts will decide who will best represent them in Congress and for the first time in a long time, Congressman Barney Frank has a strong and serious Republican challenger who is within striking distance of winning.

I strongly support Sean Bielat for Congress and with your support, he will win the election on November 2nd.

Were this a normal Massachusetts one-party election, McCain's endorsement wouldn't matter a tinker's damn. But this is not a normal election. While most of the rest of us look at McCain as a quirky Republican at best, in New England he is seen as an 'acceptable conservative', and his maverick image and military sacrifice carry a measure of respect. That could well give Newton/Brookline moderates (Clinton Democrats to the rest of us) the cushion of comfort they need to vote for Bielat. If there is one thing suburban Boston voters hate worse than a Republican, it's a pol who has overstayed his welcome - and I think Frank may have finally done that.

Let's Be Frank About History. (UPDATED)

My former Representative, Barney Frank, Then and Now.

UPDATE 17OCT2010: Barney Frank's challenger, Sean Bielat, notes Barney's 20/20 hindsight on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:



You can help Sean by going here. Remember, dear readers, money is the nutty-buddy parfait of politics. Ain't that right, John?

Reason 45,364 Why We Left Massachusetts.

We wanted to raise our kids in place where the public schools didn't promote religion:



This video illustrates the classic rule of 'stand for nothing, fall for anything'.

Sad to say this comes as no surprise to RSR. While we were living in Boston/Newton, we would often hear people almost reflexively excuse Faith in their past - "I was raised (fill in the blank), but of course I don't go anymore...", or "I'm a recovering (fill in the blank)." Religion has been mostly eliminated from the public square in uber-intelligentsia communities like Newton and Wellesley, so most of those children only know churches and synagogues as places their grandparents may hang out. Couple that with the utter disintegration of the family (if you weren't divorced at least once by the time you were 40, friends thought something was wrong with you), and the video above is the result.

Had the Archdiocese of Boston asked for these students to come to a church and "experience" Catholicism, and invited the young men to Mass, you would have heard the screams all the way to the doors of Saint Peter's.

Yet Another Reason We Don't Live In Massachusetts Anymore.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, a staunch Obama ally and card-carrying member of the Ruling Class, on Glenn Beck's Rally this weekend:

“It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t.”

Had Bush, or Cheney, or Rove dropped a gaffe like this, The Left / Mainstream Media would be manning the ramparts and screaming about proof of right-wing tyranny. But when it's one of their own, well... Nary a peep.

UPDATE 02SEPT2010: For Governor Patrick...

Whatever Floats His Boat. (UPDATED)

Multi-millionaire Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who is always carping about the rich paying their "fare share"... doesn't. And to make matters worse, Kerry, up there in boat building New England, shipped the job to build his $7 million yacht overseas.

Back in the 80's when we were living outside of Boston, my wife and I were in line at Legal Seafoods when a tall US Senator walked up to the hostess station with his entourage. And yes, the words "You know how I am...?" were actually uttered; after which me and the Missus had to cool our heels on the waiting list some more while places were found first for John and the gang.

UPDATE: Kerry channels Queen Victoria (or maybe "Ging-gis Kahn" - ed.), and answers his 'Yacht-gate' critics with the imperial: "There's nothing more to say about it." Well that settles that, doesn't it?

UPDATE: I'm sorry, but this just screams for limerick:

There once was a pol on Nantucket,
Who’s Newport yacht cost him a bucket;
As “Ging-gis” Kahn used to say,
No tax do I pay,
As I am entitled to duck it.

(An RSR original)


UPDATE 27JULY2010: Kerry says he will pay the Massachusetts Tax anyway. If you're a patrician Democrat, half a mil is chump change. Probably finds that much under the seats in Theresa's Escalade.

Our ObamaCare Future. (UPDATED)

Is happening right now in Massachusetts:

When MassCare passed, it was supposed to lower the average cost of health care by getting relatively cheap young people into the system, and ending the inefficiencies of caring for the uninsured. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite worked out that way. The bill for the uninsured only dropped by about 40%; the young, cheap people turned out to almost all need subsidies, and worse, some of them figured out how to game the system by buying insurance, getting a bunch of expensive procedures, and then dropping the insurance again.

To err is human; to really f*ck things up requires government.

UPDATE: And remember, dear readers - MassCare was birthed by none other than (then governor) Mitt Romney. Remember that come 2012 election time.

Happy Patriot's Day.

235 years ago today, a bunch of men assembled on the town green in Lexington, Massachusetts, and at the bridge at Concord a few miles down the road, and fired 'the shot heard round the world' . We called those men patriots, because they risked their lives that day (and some gave their lives) to defend the most basic human right - liberty. Such men were hated and reviled by the government then, and by those who clung to that government for their power, and are still hated today. But the patriots prevailed, and changed the world.

Today, not much has changed. Well, except this - the patriots of today's revolution will win the day with ballots, not bullets; with speech, not swords. We have not reached the point of arms to defend our Rights in our own nation; I pray we never do.

Yet Another Reason We Don't Live In Massachusetts Anymore.

Right here.

Geez Louise. We lived in Newton, Massachusetts, for 7 years with not one, but two, "military style assault rifles" and becoup "high-capacity magazines". Several shotguns and .22s were also in our possession. And...

...no one ever got hurt.

Yes, I had my FID (Firearms Identification Card) and all the weapons were registered per Massachusetts Law. But even without all that, no one would have been hurt by our weapons - unless they tried to hurt one of us. You stood more of a chance of being injured by a Green Line T than by me with my green Steyr AUG.

Hattip: The Shoulder Thing That Goes Up via Gun Pundit.

Multi-Tasking. Sort Of.

While I'm busy here in Las Vegas, I have been keeping an eye on things going on in the world (that's my comment about Scott Brown's truck at the last link). Glenn Reynolds notes an article on the real change coming out of Scott Brown's election: We have, as they say, arrived.

UPDATE: And yes, dear readers, I really have been busy helping a friend cover the SHOT Show for his website, not "busy" in the usual Las Vegas way. The SHOT Show is, so put it mildly, overwhelmingly huge - even for Las Vegas, which knows a thing or two about huge. There will be more commentary and reflection when I get back tomorrow and recover.