Friday

This is the sort of thing you only see in Amherst.

So who makes it their art to weave multi-colored yarn designs on the park benches? Meanwhile this sticker on a lamp post on King Street in Northampton is in some Valley circles considered beyond subversive and entering the realm of blasphemy.

That bank in the background used to be a convenience store/gas station where I used to work in (gulp) 1980.

Local cannabis saint Dick Evans was on TV22 last night. Check it here.

Elections have consequences, and in this case many have voted to shrink their paycheck.

BOSTON — Massachusetts families and small businesses are scheduled to be hit with higher health insurance premiums starting in 2014 when a new federal tax on health plans kicks in, jeopardizing the state’s efforts to rein in health care spending, according to a new report and industry leaders.

With the focus from politicians and government leaders on tax increases and spending cuts associated with the near-term fiscal cliff, other looming tax increases also stand to have chilling effect on business growth. A new report from America’s Health Insurance Plans estimates that Massachusetts families and small businesses will be hit particularly hard.

Read more here.

Locally the Hampshire Gazette is often criticized for keeping most of their content behind a paywall unless you subscribe to their print edition or pay $10.99 per month. However, maybe they are on to something after all:

If readers don't want to pay for content online that they happily paid for in print, that content will eventually go away, due to the fact that it costs money to produce real journalism. The most realistic outcome—and one that has already been happening in many legacy newsrooms—is that online paywalls will make up some, but not all, of the revenue that's been lost on the print side. Therefore these huge media outlets will shrink somewhat, and probably demand more from each employee, but they will not disappear.

Read more here.

What are the greatest dangers that the American people face today that subvert the goal of a free society? According to Rep. Ron Paul there are five:

1. The continuous attack on our civil liberties, which threatens the rule of law and our ability to resist the onrush of tyranny.

2. Violent anti-Americanism that has engulfed the world. Because the phenomenon of "blow-back" is not understood or denied, our foreign policy is destined to keep us involved in many wars that we have no business being in. National bankruptcy and a greater threat to our national security will result.

3. The ease in which we go to war, without a declaration by Congress, but accepting international authority from the UN or NATO even for preemptive wars, otherwise known as aggression.

4. A financial political crisis as a consequence of excessive debt, unfunded liabilities, spending, bailouts, and gross discrepancy in wealth distribution going from the middle class to the rich. The danger of central economic planning, by the Federal Reserve must be understood.

5. World government taking over local and U.S. sovereignty by getting involved in the issues of war, welfare, trade, banking, a world currency, taxes, property ownership, and private ownership of guns.

So get out there and fight back!