Turns out March 23rd is a big day for progressives! In 1919, Mussolini founded his Fascist movement. In 1933, Germany passed the Enabling Act, which "effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers." Whew! I’m sure glad that today, on March 23rd, 2010, those old-fashioned ideas of authoritarian government control are a thing of the past.

Cough.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/paterson.tax.refund.2.1569690.html

For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the check won’t be in the mail — at least not on time. New York State has stopped paying tax refunds and won’t start again until next month.

The tax refund delay is part of a bigger cash crunch.

Message to New Yorkers: don’t start spending your tax refund money because it’s going to be delayed.

Half a billion dollars’ worth of refund checks were put on hold last Friday, and state beancounters won’t start sending you your money until at least April 1.

"I apologize that we had to do this. I hope it serves notice on the public of how serious our financial situation is," Gov. David Paterson said.

I’m pretty sure if you tried to serve notice to David Paterson of how serious your financial situation is by not paying his greedy ass, you’d get a knock on the door from a friendly but firm fellow with a gun. The nice thing about moving toward authoritarianism is that they won’t have to apologize anymore. They’ll just take your shit and shoot you if you complain.

From Cryptogon

The article doesn’t mention why it was illegal in the first place, but I don’t really care, either. I still can’t imagine why you’d need to register to collect your own rainwater.  Or why you’d need a Cthulhu-approved container to store it in. Or why you’d only be allowed to store a certain amount.

I can only assume that it’s just stupid government being stupid again. Or maybe you’re not supposed to be able to provide for yourself. Self-sufficiency and resilience are frowned upon.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The Utah Legislature has passed a bill that would permit the personal collection of rainwater.

The House unanimously approved the legislation on Wednesday. It has already cleared the Senate.

If signed by the governor the measure would reverse a decades-old prohibition on rainwater harvesting in the state.

Senate Bill 32 would permit the collection of no more than 2,500 gallons in a storage container.

If it becomes law Utahns wouldn’t be able to just put out barrels in the backyard. The proposal requires registering with the state and buying a standardized container.

This just in from the Canadian premier who came to the US to have heart surgery.

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

OK, so Canada’s socialist health care system was unable to provide the level of care he wanted. So he came the USA to have the “best possible health care.” But WAIT, the hypocrisy gets even THICKER!!!

Williams said his decision to go to the U.S. did not reflect any lack of faith in his own province’s health care system.

"I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but we are just over half a million people," he said.

"We do whatever we can to provide the best possible health care that we can in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian health care system has a great reputation, but this is a very specialized piece of surgery that had to be done and I went to somebody who’s doing this three or four times a day, five, six days a week."

So while he has the utmost confidence in Canada’s shitty system, he didn’t want to be seen as jumping the line or one of Canadian health care’s famous “wait lists” so he paid out of his own pocket to come to America to get the “best possible health care.”

Williams also said he paid for the treatment, but added he would seek any refunds he would be eligible for in Canada.

"If I’m entitled to any reimbursement from any Canadian health care system or any provincial health care system, then obviously I will apply for that as anybody else would," he said.

Great, so Canada has a two-tiered health system: one tier for everybody who can afford to come to America to pay for it themselves (the American system), and one for those who can’t (the Canadian system). And this is the kind of subpar, ineffective system is what Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and EVERY SINGLE OTHER DEMOCRAT IN CONGRESS wants to implement here? No thanks. American health care may be expensive, but apparently it’s pretty damn good. As long as I’m paying ofr it anyway, I’ll take good over shitty any day.

If you’re a politician or a member of the favored aristocracy, you’ll still be able to get the health care you need. If you’re a regular person, take a number, Jack, they’ll get to you eventually.

If you need a yardstick by which to measure your effectiveness as a parent, a fair place to start would be to ask yourself if your kids go hungry on snow days.

TAKOMA PARK, Md. — As back-to-back snowstorms shuttered schools for the week across the mid-Atlantic states, parents fretted about lost learning time, administrators scheduled makeup days and teachers posted assignments online.

But Marla Caplon worried about a more fundamental problem: How would students eat?

The two snowstorms that pummeled the region, leaving more than 3 feet of snow in some areas, deprived tens of thousands of children from Virginia to Pennsylvania of the free or reduced-price school lunch that may be their only nutritious meal of the day.