Aunt Lorraine & Uncle Roger and The Day the Music Died

A small plane took off from the Mason City Iowa airport in bad weather, shortly after midnight on February 3, 1959. It was a short flight. Killed in the subsequent crash were the pilot, Roger Peterson, entertainers J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly. They had just finished their performances at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake. You are probably familiar with the story of the “The Winter Dance Party” tour and “the day the music died.” (Also on the tour were Dion & the Belmonts.)

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Those Annoying Regulations

We know government regulations are bad; we’re constantly being told that, anyway.

Here are a few benefits of free enterprise that were taken from us by bothersome government regulations:

  • Rotting, contaminated meat
  • Automobiles without seat belts
  • Marketing cigarettes to kids
  • Handling with unwashed hands food sold to you
  • Air full of mercury-and arsenic

We take these things for granted; maybe we’ve forgotten how prevalent they were before government regulations got rid of them.

Read more here.

You Get What You Pay For Dept.

Douglas County Oregon, at the south end of the Willamette Valley, has for many decades been the fortunate recipient of revenue from tax on timber harvests. As the logging industry has declined, so has income from it. Now its citizens are faced with difficult decisions about paying for things themselves that previously were “free.” In the recent election, Douglas County voted down a tax to keep its library system operating. The margin was 55% to 45%. (Donald Trump won the county with 65% of the vote.) The county’s libraries are scheduled to close April 1.

As one resident said:

“If you want to use the library you should pay for it yourself. We are tired of being taxed. Property owners are tired of being taxed to pay for something that’s free.”