There's nothing uglier, more obscene or as deadly as Californication

we’re here!

Seen on InstaPundit:

JON CALDERA: The three different ways Coloradans are being taxed.

Here’s one:

The untold story of the Jared Polis years is the explosion of Colorado’s regulatory state. The Mercatus Center released a report on regulations throughout the states. And congratulations, Colorado, we have skyrocketed to No. 12 in the number of regulations.

As of 2023, we have 165,994 regulatory restrictions. By contrast neighboring Kansas and Nebraska have around 75,000. Idaho clocks in at only 31,497 — five times less than us.

Colorado has 53,550 environmental restrictions, while the national average is close to half that. How much of your health care costs are from regulations? We have 13,719 restrictions on health care services, while the national average is only 4,673.

It’s not just that there are so many more regulations here. It’s that authorities to create even more regulations is growing like a cancer.

Take the Air Quality Control Commission. Just a few years ago, it was called the Regional Air Quality Council and had no real authority other than making recommendations. The legislature mutated it into a “commission” on par with the likes of the omnipotent Public Utilities Commission.

It now has near unlimited authority to regulate the state out of business. From banning gas-powered tools to forcing companies to require their employees to carpool, this unelected star chamber is working to make Colorado unaffordable.

Previously: ‘F’ Is for Democrat: Colorado’s Collapse Under One-Party Rule.

Ayn Rand chose Colorado as a state in which to set the capitalists’ sanctuary in Atlas Shrugged — that was in 1957, well before the invasion of the wokes surged in the 90s, and converted the Eastern Range into California II in numbers that overwhelmed the original pioneer stock on the other side of the Continental Divide. The triumph of Wesley Mouch.

Cos Cob, again

Some of us were surprised (well, I ws, anyway) when back in June ‘23, Russ Pruner listed 11 Pond Place at $1.395 and it immediately sold for $1.6 million. That helped me adjust to the new Cos Cob pricing, so that this time, I wasn’t surprised when the house was returned to the market nine days ago at $1.825, nor shocked that it already pending and probably selling for more.

Four bedrooms, just two baths, and window air conditioners, but what do you expect to find in low-income housing?

Two new (to me) words, and a term, possibly a neologism, added to my vocabulary: "Feculents", "Sitzpinkler", and "Globalist Ambergris"

Like a Christmas miracle, too good to be true, Trump's return to power appears to be causing a bit of disquietude for the elite feculence who tried to enslave We the People and hand our nation over to the globalist ambergris, and they are panicking.

FACT-O-RAMA! While I lack the talent and vocabulary to express the rage I still feel for the vile animals who sent me Twitter messages threatening to rape my fiancée while I was "in prison for being a f***ing insurrectionist," I take great pride in going from a "high-profile MAGA, domestic extremist" (or whatever that obese, talent-free, salad-dodging sitzpinkler NBC "reporter" Ryan J. Reilly called me) to a man who was A-OK to be a secondary Trump driver. Elections have consequences. [“Salad-dodging” is pretty good, too — Ed]

I’m sure that you readers are already familiar with these, but just in case …

"Feculence" refers to foul or impure matter, specifically dregs, sediment, or feces. It can also describe the state of being feculent, which means dirty, muddy, or unclean. In essence, it's a noun denoting the presence of something undesirable and often related to waste or impurities. 

"Sitzpinkler" is a German term that literally translates to "sitting pisser". It refers to a man who sits down to urinate, rather than standing. While it can be used as a neutral descriptor, it is often used pejoratively to imply a lack of masculinity or a tendency towards being overly cautious or effeminate, according to Quora. In Germany, the practice of sitting to urinate is more common than in many other countries, and some German men even embrace the term with a degree of pride,

As for "Globalist Ambergris”, I know what ambergris is: “a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.[1] Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor”; I could find no reference to the full term in a brief Google search, so I suspect that Downey has coined it to refer to the putrid, foul-smelling One World crowd. I will write to him to inquire.

Not content with destroying its members’ energy infrastructure and burying them under third world immigrants, the EU now intends to decapitalize its industries

Off to switzerland

Plan That Whole World Seemed To Hate Wasn’t Even Reviewed, EU Officials Now Admit

European Union (EU) officials are pushing forward with a major climate proposal, even though they apparently did not bother to study the policy’s costs or environmental impacts, according to Politico.

In July, the European Commission unveiled a sweeping plan to slash the EU’s carbon footprint by 90% by 2040, partly by allowing member states to use carbon credits earned by funding climate projects in developing countries to offset emissions. Despite the policy’s potentially massive economic and environmental ramifications, EU officials admitted they did not conduct an internal analysis of its impacts before proposing it, Politico reported.

The Commission admitted its climate department, DG CLIMA, held no documents analyzing the program’s cost or effectiveness when Politico requested internal assessments of the policy’s potential impacts.

The idea was spearheaded by Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, but climate department head Kurt Vandenberghe admitted in June that they were “not entirely prepared” for the move, Politico reported. Key details, including how much the credits will cost and whether taxpayers or companies will foot the bill, also remain unclear, according to the outlet. 

….

Critics argue that carbon credit policies impose significant compliance costs on businesses, forcing them to participate in a system that many consider deeply flawed. Companies have spent millions on carbon offset projects that deliver little to no real emissions reductions, and in some cases, have exaggerated or outright fabricated their environmental impact. [90% of rain forest “offsets” were found to be phony, Chinese “bio-diesel” exports are not as claimed, made from recycled palm and cooking oil”, etc, — ED]

“The cost of high-quality carbon credits that deliver sustainable and long-term mitigation outcomes can be very high,” the EU’s scientific advisory board on climate change warned about the carbon credits in June. “Purchasing such credits from abroad could therefore come at the expense of domestic investment opportunities.”

[Which, besides lining the pockets of fraudsters behind this scheme, is the main point: deindustrialize the west — Ed]

And till more garbage “science”:

 (RELATED: Turns Out Major Climate Study Peddled By Media Relied On Bunk Data)

Unaffordable houses in Maine

I don’t know the answer to this one, but it’s a terrible trend for young people hoping to buy their first house; for that matter, it sucks for many would-be buyers of any age

Median home sale prices in every Maine county have more than doubled in the last decade, housing data show.

The median price for a single family home rose to $425,000 last month, the Maine Association of Realtors recently reported. That marks a more than 135 percent increase since 2015, when the average home in Maine sold for slightly more than $180,000.

Piscataquis County stood out as the Maine county with the sharpest spike in home prices since 2010. The average cost of a home there now sits at $255,000 compared with $75,000 in 2010 — a 240 percent increase in 15 years.

Androscoggin, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Somerset and York counties also saw home price increases from 2010 to 2025 that outpaced the statewide average of 152 percent, data gathered from Maine Listings show.

The numbers illustrate how quickly home prices in Maine have risen to be out of reach for many homebuyers, even in the state’s more rural areas.

Jeff Harris, 2025 President of the Maine Association of Realtors, credited [attributed? — Ed] the rising prices to high demand for housing coupled with low inventory, though the number of properties available is slowly improving.

In Penobscot County, home prices rose nearly 67 percent from $170,000 to $283,700 between 2020 and 2025, versus a 28 percent bump in the five years before 2020.

In the decade before the pandemic, home prices in Cumberland County rose from $225,300 to $365,000 — a 62 percent increase. Since 2020, however, median home prices in Maine’s most populated county have nearly doubled, from $365,000 to $600,000, making it the most costly in the state.

The median household income in Vacation Land is about $75,000, which would probably buy a $300,000 home. Cumberland County residents earn far more, on average, and can afford more, but that’s not the case in the rest of the state.

Minnesota is the first; it surely won't be the last

A female fencer took a knee instead of competing against a biological male, leading USA Fencing to disqualify and expel her from the college tournament, despite her opponent having played on the men’s team last year before switching to women’s.

If We Can't Have Men in Women's Sports, Then We Will Have No Women's Sports at All...

The USA Fencing Minnesota division announced plans to only sanction mixed-gender events moving forward in response to new policies that prevent biologically male trans athletes from competing in women's competitions. 

USA Fencing changed its policies to ensure that only biological females are able to compete in the women's category last month after the entire U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) updated its athlete safety policy to suggest compliance with President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order. 

David Strom:

As a practical matter, of course, the real victims of Minnesota Fencing's decision are women who should be allowed to compete with other women. But that is no barrier to making this change to their policy, because these women are "cisgender," and hence lower on the intersectional ladder than transgender "women." 

This is what they call "equity."

Murder/suicide on Shorelands Place

Two dead at 11 Shorelands Place, Old Greenwich

Word I’m hearing is the victim was the mother of the shooter, Stein Erik Soelberg.

I’ve written about this man’s troubles before; sad tale.

February 12, 2025: Multiple Charges for Greenwich Driver Who Blew Through Stop Sign, Fled from Police

Police said an Old Greenwich man faces multiple charges after an incident in the area of the Old Greenwich Civic Center on Feb 12 around 9:00pm.

That is when patrol officers were stopped at a stop sign when an oncoming vehicle blew through the opposing stop sign and crossed into the lane of travel where the patrol car was stopped, such that side view mirrors came into contact.

From there, police said the driver, later identified as Stein Erik Soelberg, 56, of Greenwich, fled the scene at a high rate of speed, disregarding officers signals to stop for some time.

Ultametely a motor vehicle stop was successful and on-scene investigation indicated that Mr. Soelberg was under the influence, displaying slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and was unable to focus on and answer questions.

Soelberg was unable to perform field sobriety tests to standard and was placed under arrest.

2019: Greenwich Man Accused [sic] Of Urinating In Woman's Duffel Bag

GREENWICH, CT — Police said an Old Greenwich man is accused of urinating in a woman's duffel bag outside Greenwich Police headquarters. Police said in a release they received a walk-in report Tuesday afternoon of a "disorderly male" in the lobby of the department.

According to police, a woman reported she has just witnessed Stein Erik Soelberg, 50, urinating inside her duffel bag right outside the department's entrance on Mason Street.

Police said officers subsequently approached the accused, who later admitted to urinating in the bag. He was arrested and charged with second-degree breach of peace and third-degree criminal mischief, police said.

Sadly, I know from personal experience that the same people who close their eyes to what went on in the Obama/Biden years will refuse to see this either

hijacked food relief column

The Teeny, Tiny Problem With the UN Smack Talking Israel About Aid to Gaza

The problem is the United Nations being knee deep in the Hamas aid-looting and profit-boosting redistribution cycle. 

Sadly for the UN, the world is slowly but surely finding out about it despite all the UN's screeching efforts to paint the Israelis as, at best, obstructive and at worst, the evil villains in the 'But Gazans are starving' Pallywood saga.

Completely oblivious to the furor surrounding aid trucks and food deliveries, Hamas auxiliaries are still proudly producing and uploading their highway robbery videos.

Accompanied by quite a snappy background tune, you see weapon-waving, masked operatives aboard hijacked aid trucks, jauntily mugging for the camera, as their accomplices whiz on by on the side roads alongside the speeding trucks.

The production values that the stolen aid buys are quite high. I'm sure it makes every little boy watching want to be a hijacker.

…. [It''s] not a question of aid getting in, apparently. Videos of mountains of food already staged inside Gaza are everywhere.

The linked-to article provides many more examples of why and how food is not reaching the civilians, and the media’s complicity in Hamas’ propaganda campaign, but this video provides a good example: