Teacher Hacks And Their Strikes

Teacher unions are calling strikes in several states over ostensibly lower pay - reflecting the hackeramas they created with inflated benefits packages etc. It also generates perpetual sham grievances about teacher pay.

The Nature Of EPA Meddling

A look at a Richard Epstein piece on the EPA and the nature of its meddling.

Senator Chris Murphy Stands with Islamists

Senator Chris Murphy proves himself a tool by standing with the enemy.

NASCAR Blasts Into Talladega But Not Without Disappointment

NASCAR's first Talladega weekend arrived amid several eye-opening changes and in a season that has yet to arrest the sport's decline in ratings and attendances.    The continued popularity funk comes amid some reason for optimism down the road with aerodynamic issues now being addressed properly and the racing in 2018 being noticeably better than in recent years.   Once the weekend was over, though, more questions were left being asked about some of its rules sagacity.

The Geico 500 weekend began with an eye-popping crash involving former Talladega winner Jamie McMurray, whose blown tire set off the nastiest tumble in years and raised questions about the wisdom of  allowing speeds in the 200 MPH bracket - Daytona's recent bad melees involving catchfencing both involved speeds in the 200 range, this after decades of experience that 194 is realistically the cut-off point for keeping the cars on the ground.  NASCAR made a restrictor plate change after this wreck that was the weakest form of window-dressing and which thus didn't really solve anything, leaving the question about the restrictor plate size come the Firecracker weekend in July.   A larger spoiler and smaller plate would seem a no-brainer; the curiously unexamined angle is the draft duct package now in use on the flat superovals and beginning at Charlotte in the All-Star Race; one would think down the road that will become a part of the package at the plate tracks as well.

The weekend accelerated with ARCA's General Tire 200 - this coming after the stunning announcement that NASCAR has purchased the sanctioning body.  

Reaction to NASCAR's purchase of ARCA was negative, with angry citation of NASCAR's purchase of the ARTGO and All-Pro tours as evidence against the purchase. As Matt Weaver of Autoweek put it, this buyout is basically a case of the pie being too small for the two bodies - longtime quasi-allies - not to merge.  Given ARCA's experience with superspeedways I doubt it will affect that series that much and may have been inevitable.

As for the General Tire 200, once again the policy of not racing to the flag came back to ruin what was a terrific race with a terrific finish won by Zane Smith.   Sheldon Creed in the Ranier/MDM #28 and Sean Corr in the Petty-affiliated Empire car - this time #46, the number normally used by Petty's grandson Thad Moffitt - were as at Daytona in the thick of the fight for the win, and once again a race-ending wreck left Corr with the worst of it.   The racing was awesome with the sidedraft for the lead raging pretty much wire to wire.


The weekend also saw a major Late Model race at Five Flags Speedway that was even uglier than the crashing at Talladega with a nasty encounter between racers Stephen Nasse and Donnie Wilson, a set-to where Nasse punched out Wilson while Wilson was still in his car; Wilson then got out and the brawl was on.   The track PA announcer supposedly said, "Nasse is known as a hothead" and  Kyle Plott said, "That's Nasse's fault.  He started that.  That's stupid as hell."   When it was all over Bubba Pollard stormed to the win over Casey Roderick and Chandler Smith, who gagged on the last restart.

Nasse for his part spoke afterward.

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The other big story entering the weekend was the announcement that Matt Kenseth - idled since JGR released him after 2017 - will drive for Roush-Fenway Racing in replacement of Trevor Bayne in the #6 starting at Kansas. With reports that Roush was working on some sort of long-term deal for Kenseth, the change is suggestive that Roush has given up on the mostly-unsuccessful Bayne, who won the Daytona 500 in the Wood Brothers #21 in 2011, managed four top ten finishes 2016-17, and won twice in Roush Busch-Xfinity Fords, but has overall accomplished nothing - ironically illustrated in being eliminated in a wreck in the Geico 500.

The seeming failure of Bayne raises anew concern that the much-vaunted Young Guns simply lack the ammunition as racers.   Chase Elliott has run strongly, including second at Richmond, but overall has not shown evidence he is actually learning how to win.   He also has been in essence the only Chevrolet doing anything in a season monopolized by SHR Fords, Penske Fords, and JGR Toyotas.

That Elliott is the only Chevrolet in this sea of Fords and Toyotas is the lone highlight for what looks more and more like a season where the Daytona 500 is the only win the Bowtie Brigade will get.   Talladega showed anew how outclassed the Chevrolet fleet is, with the Chevys basically dragged along from pillar to post.


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Fans also got a front-row seat to the downside of modern racing.   In the Sparks Energy 300 and in the Geico 500 the drivers were capable of passing yet didn't do it.  In the Sparks 300 almost the only combat was the two-lap finish where Spencer Gallagher, who's been kicking around the Xfinity and Truck Series as well as the K&N Series and ARCA since 2011, blasted to the win, his second career win anywhere after his ARCA win at Kansas, both times in Maury Gallagher Chevrolets.

The Geico 500 was actually worse.   NASCAR's liberalized ride-height rule may have backfired with racecars noticeably unstable and drivers were focused more on short-pitting - which so staggered the field as to make it a mess, this even without the rash of pit speeding penalties that permeated pit sequencing - than on actually leading the race.   Even though the battle for the lead in spots swelled to epic proportion - i.e what Talladega is supposed to be - it simply wasn't a case of drivers committed to going for the lead.

Thus was the melee started by a sideways Jimmie Johnson racing for about fifteenth all the more ironic, a confluence of the worst aspects of racing - unstable racecars and drivers almost scared to pass anyone (and yet getting wrecked anyway).  

And in the end Joey Logano grabbed his first win since the Richmond 400 in 2017, a surprising thirty-six race slump.   The starkest contrast in this slump is Logano managed just eight top tens the rest of 2017 while nailing eight top tens before the Talladega win - in contrast teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney have managed just two top-tens combined in the last four races.  


So Talladega blasted through its first race weekend of the season and the patterns of the season appear now to be set with Dover coming up.

Socialized Medicine Kills A Youth Named Alfie

Britain's National Health Service is killing a baby named Alfie and has bullied the boy's father into accepting it. This is socialized medicine in action - they control you and you have no right to object.

Scott Pruitt's Crime Is Beating Leftists

EPA chief Scott Pruitt is under attack - because he stands up to leftists in their campaign to persecute business.

The Fraud Of Establishmentarians

"Establishmentarians" - government hacks who claim to be professional - try to run amok as they disgrace themselves, and show anew that respect is not given, it must be earned.

The Myth Of Canadian Health Care

The myth of government-run health care always cites Canada as an example of success. In fact it is a failure, with Canadians paying far more than they're supposed to and get less than they're supposed to - the iron law of government intervention in market forces.

Trump Winning In Justice Department War

Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein have proven their critics wrong - and in the process they - and the inherent fraudulence of the Robert Mueller investigattion - discredited Andrew McCabe and his coverup for Hillary Clinton.

Earth Day's Murderous Founder

Nicknamed the Unicorn Killer because his last name means "one horn" in German



Intellectuals have a reputation for being despicable people - Earth Day's founder proves that anew.

The Future of Israel Looks Good

Despite concerns about Israel's future, the country is doing well economically, militarily and internationally. The future bodes well for the country.

The Dangers of Failing Middle East States

Key Arab countries are unlikely to retain their past structures.

Global Warming Myth On Tornadoes Blown Away

A recurring claim about global warming is that tornadoes would increase - they've actually dropped since 1954 to a record low.

Hypocrats Discovery Federalism

In the hypocritical manner that defines the Democratic Party, they are embracing federalism.

Russia's History Of Military Overkill

Soviet Russia's continuing development of "doomsday weapons" reflects the empire's history of desiring overkill.

Scott Pruitt Bashing

Leftists hate Scott Pruitt of the EPA because he is effective at reigning in the regulatory state.

If the NY Times and Washington Post were truly concerned about wasteful spending at the EPA, there was plenty of it to cover over the years. Yet never has there been this degree of outrage about this type of business-as-usual waste in Washington.

Honor Killing Is Not Just a Muslim Problem

Islamic imperialism specializes in "the most extreme form of institutionalized violence against women on the planet." But it isn't alone.

A Historic Step in Austria?

Something unprecedented took place in Austria in December 2017 – it took a massive step against Islamo-Arab Imperialism.

The Democratic Debt's Excuse-Making

The NY Times - natch - tries to portray the Democratic Party as "the party of fiscal responsibility." It isn't, and never was.

NASCAR's New Business Model

With word that Monster Energy will not renew its sponsorship of the Winston Cup Grand National series after 2019, Matt Weaver analyzes what appears to be the coming business model for NASCAR that appears modeled after the models used in the NFL etc. with multiple official partners. The potential problem here is NASCAR needs more, not less, sponsors and it needs to swallow its pride and welcome competing sponsors like Gatorade, Mountain Dew, STP, etc. Stop worrying about "conflict" because bundling sponsors for the series, tracks, etc. should eschew the "one size fits all" mentality that has hurt the sport. Sponsors competing against each other has long helped the sport as well as the sponsors themselves.   Teams also need to be benefitted because too many sponsors who should be on racecars were taken by NASCAR as "official sponsors."

The Weaver piece lobbies for schedule changes so NASCAR can "reinvent itself" and claims "a handful of tracks...do not currently warrant two dates."   This is false.   The tracks with two dates manifestly do warrant two dates and contrary to contrarianism in fan and some media circles the sport doesn't really need new markets, it needs to make itself more competitive as racing and thus strengthen its existing markets.   This is why NASCAR's use of the restrictor plate-drag duct package at the All Star Race is all the more a positive development.  

The business model for NASCAR also needs to address spending, because this is why costs have increased.   Team spending needs to be addressed by all involved because no team should be spending $10 million or more to run forty races a season.

NASCAR now seems to be grasping at least partially what has to be done.

Facebook's Crony Capitalism

Mark Zuckerberg runs Facebook and after the Cambridge Analytica "scandal" - it was simple advertising research - was grilled by a Congress that showed it has no idea how Facebook operates, a Congress that has "never produced anything valuable in their lives and are in the business of using force to achieve their ends" Zuckerberg welcomed government meddling in Facebook, continuing the dubious tradition of crony capitalism.

Fem Hypocrisy

Feminism is portrayed as advocacy of women's empowerment. This, though, is a lie - the goal is women's entitlement. And even then feminism reeks of the hypocrisy that is the dominant quality of Leftism - yet another case in point is the Women's March and its fight for the website Backpage, a site that empowers sex trafficking.

"Modern day sex workers are modern day slaves," is a paraphrase of British feminist Julie Bindel's 2017 analysis of modern "sex workers."  And the feminist movement is.........empowering sex slavery?

The Equal Pay Myth

Equal Pay Day is one of those phony days that push a myth. The myth is the "77 cents per woman for every dollar per man in earnings" myth. But that's all it is - a myth.

The Success Of School Choice

The leftwing Center For American Progress attacks school choice. Like larger leftism it dos so by being dishonest. School choice works.

Despite Trump Boast, US Staying In Syria

Because there are no positive outcomes from a U.S. withdrawal

Conspiracy Mongering And Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King is still portrayed as a God for civil rights, as though his speeches accomplished what market economics weren't already quietly achieving and what market economics inevitably always achieve. Unflattering facts about King - his womanizing, the fact he lied on his dissertation at BU, being wrong about Vietnam - are always glossed over, and oddly with his killing a conspiracy theory was created.

MeToo Warrior Hoist With Her Own Petard

The #MeToo movement continues the Democratic Party and Leftism's fraudulence on sexual abuse and harassment as a California #MeToo harlot is hoist with her own petard.

MeToo hypocrisy gets bigger as now emerging is testimony on how Obama-era regulations stifled reporting on sexual abuse.

Medicaid, The Fraud That Keeps On Giving

California takes a ponzi scheme - Medicaid - and commits fraud.

John Brennen And Careerist Sabotage

Former CIA chief John Brennen's threat to unseat Donald Trump showed him to be a bureaucrat who has been incompetent and dishonest, just like similar "deep state" careerist Susan Rice, who lied about the Benghazi ambush, Syria's chemical weapons stores, and so forth. And the worst aspect is we also have the sanctimonious James Comey and his multiple instances where he basically perjured himself and didn't do his job.